Good Food

Preparing and consuming food should be more than just a simple daily task. Food is about fueling the physical self, stimulating the senses, and nourishing nutritional needs.

When you choose healthy, all-natural foods designed to flex when you do, comfort cravings that creep in, and provide wholesome nourishment, you fuel your whole person.

When you take the time to delve deeper and research issues about nutrition, the information obtained is alarming. The real truth about largely consumed foods – meat and dairy, in particular, is often withheld from us or misconstrued in the name of sustaining the livelihood of the masses, but industries are driven by a desire to serve their own highest good (think profit margin) and not yours.
I say this with the hope you will seek your own information from numerous sources and then make decisions about your dietary approach based on your findings. My advice is for you to use both common sense and scientific study (from reliable non-government influenced or industry subsidized studies). Your body is always talking to you with the information you need to consider for your own health. Listen closely to what it is saying.

It is important to clarify that I am not a scientist, nor do I have the desire to view food and eating strictly as a scientific exercise. My approach is based upon gathering information from numerous sources (mainly the naturopathic approaches to healthy eating), testing it first hand, and assessing the situation resulting from my current eating habits.
Consider the dietary related health issues: battles with obesity, type-two diabetes, and the numerous re-occurring health scares and diseases associated with our animal source foods. Sugar, manmade fats, white carbohydrates, over-processed, prepackaged, genetically modified foods and preservative laden non-natural items are also related to a myriad of health issues.
This has been a wake-up call for me and influences the changes I have made, and continue to make, with my own eating habits. The more I learn, the more I continue to adapt my dietary approach. What is this approach? I choose as much and as close to natural – unrefined, unprocessed, uncontaminated – foods as possible with minimal processing and packaging, and all-natural meats and vegetables. In addition to it making sense to eat this way, the ‘do it and see for yourself’ approach is what sold me. I feel so much better, rarely get ill, I have higher energy stores, and I feel more youthful.
Does the food I eat really affect all of this? – Absolutely. The direct influence of the foods we eat upon our health and mood is scientifically proven. In addition to diet-related diseases, many of us have likely experienced the lethargic feeling after a turkey dinner or the brain drain after a sugar rush has worn off, and the passion inhibiting, indigestion-inducing results of eating a high fat, high calorie, heavy meal.

All of this may seem overwhelming, yet when we pay attention to the messages from our body and Mother Nature herself, the warnings are screaming at us. With dietary allergies, lactose intolerance, dietary influenced diseases, salmonella poisoning, E-coli fears, meat industry disasters, and many other health issues, it is time for us to wake up and determine the cause of this havoc.

We have monstrous challenges within our health care system, (and poor dietary habits contribute to this). We typically embrace the ‘take a pill, bury the symptoms, and ignore the cause’ pharmaceutical answers for most maladies. This approach has a negative impact on our environment and our bodies.
We have an intrinsic knowledge that what we are doing does not work. Yet, we justify our actions, claiming we are too busy, and we place trust in leaders that we know are self-serving. We order take-out for lunch, munch on a coffee-chain bagel or donut while guzzling Latte’s, then head to the supermarket for a well marketed, popular, ‘low fat’ frozen entree for dinner. It says it is good for us we proclaim, sure it is low fat, quick and easy, so we can‘t just relax’ while it bakes.

Maybe we so desperately need to relax because our energy levels are down, mood swings high, emotions fragile, and stress levels off the chart as a result of all the processed, chemical-laden, toxic, dead, pre-packaged foods that are severely lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. It is no wonder we cannot think straight.

I am encouraged by the fact that we are waking up and more people are paying attention, seeking alternative ways, making changes, and supporting the growth and success of the natural approach. All-natural farmers are continually increasing their production and health food stores are expanding, increasing in numbers, and making their way into large grocery store chains.

It is a blessing for us all – one I am grateful for. We all benefit with healthy food consumption. Healthier people are happier people – the benefits are huge.

I pray we begin with changes for ourselves and steadily influence the world around us. Your grocer will stock what sells, so be a proactive naturalist – ask for the products that you want, educate others on their merits so that they too will purchase these and know you are part of the solution to save yourself and save the (your) world.